Donny artist commissoned birthday present for the Queen

Doncaster based sculptor Amanda Hughes-Lubeck had a very special meeting on 23rd May-with the Queen at St James’ Palace in London.
She was there to present to Her Majesty the commission of “Fell Pony”, on the occasion of her 90th birthday. Amanda said: “I was commissioned out of the blue by Lord Dudson of the Dudson ceramic family. He asked me if I could sculpt Emma for Her Majesty.”
Amanda is one of the leading equestrian and animal sculptors in the country, with 26 years experience behind her so far. She trained for two years at the prestigious Sir Henry Doulton school of sculpture in her home town of Stoke-on-Trent.
This is Amanda’s first commission for a member of the Royal family. However, she had previously sculpted “The Queen on Burmese” for Beswick and Royal Worcester.
“Fell Pony” took three months of work and Emma was nervous about presenting the finished sculpture to Her Majesty.
“I’ve met quite a lot of famous people, but The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh is just on another dimension completely.”
Most of Emma’s work has been for the ceramic industry, creating prototypes.
“I’ve made all sorts, from Red Rum to Winnie the Pooh with Christopher Robin and Piglet sitting in an umbrella.
The largest piece was the restoration of The Lovers statue in Doncaster. It’s about 4 meters tall and was re- erected last year”, she said.
Amanda moved to Doncaster due to her husband changing jobs.
“It has become my home now and I love it. I think it has a lot of positive things going for it. It has seen huge growth in the past few years with new business coming into the area.
I wish that I could do more with my work here but I tend to sell more in the South- Cheshire and the Norfolk / Suffolk area, due to the type of galleries that I sell through”, said Amanda.